Handing address book notification

Applies to: Outlook 2013 | Outlook 2016

Address book notifications allow a client to learn of events that occur to any address book entry or to a particular entry. You can register for these notifications either through the MAPI address book by calling IAddrBook::Advise or through an address book container's hierarchy or contents table by calling IMAPITable::Advise.

Specify the entry identifier of an address book container, distribution list, or messaging user if you are registering for notifications on a particular entry and NULL if registering for notifications on the entire address book. The entry identifier must represent a messaging user or distribution list in an address book container. IAddrBook::Advise examines this entry identifier to determine which address book provider is responsible for the corresponding object and forwards the call to the appropriate address book provider's IABLogon::Advise method.

Clients can register for the following types of events on address book entries:

  • Critical error

  • Any of the object events (created, modified, deleted, moved, or copied)

  • Table modified

Typically, registration occurs only on address book container contents and hierarchy tables. It is rare that clients register with the lower level messaging user and distribution list objects. This is because:

  • Many address book providers do not support notifications on their messaging users and distribution lists.

  • Table notifications are sufficient for tracking changes and reporting them to users.